Currently, research in the field of electronic textiles is very active, and although not a great deal of advanced electronic textile products can be found in the market-place today, it is expected that many new products will find their way to the consumers in the near future.
One example of a product group that is expected to appeal to consumers is products made from actively light-emitting textiles. Such textiles, which may have a matrix of light sources, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), connected to a power supply and, optionally, a LED-controller via a conductor pattern provided in the fabric, may be used to make domestic textiles, such as curtains or pillow covers, and clothes.
In WO 03/095729, an embodiment is disclosed, in which functional yarn including a plurality of LEDs is interwoven with conductive and non-conductive yarns to form an addressable passive-matrix display in which the LEDs may be individually addressed.
In a passive-matrix type electronic textile, such as that disclosed in the above-referenced document, both the row and column conductors leading from a power supply to a certain LED need to be intact for the particular LED to be operable. This is a disadvantage of this type of electronic textiles, since textiles as a rule need to be cut into suitable shapes and measures in order to allow manufacturing of domestic textiles or clothes.
There is thus a need for an electronic textile that can be cut to measure without losing its functionality.